Ofsted will visit Wakefield's children's services again on February 5.

But the council subsequently put enough improvements in place to convince a Government-appointed commissioner that it was now capable of running the department and delivering long-term progress.

In a verbal update to the local authority's Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee today (Wednesday), service director Beate Wagner said there was "much more to do" but that staff were now being given better support.

"The plan we have in place is the right one but only if a steely focus is retained," she told the meeting.

Children's services director Beate Wagner said a lot of progress had been made, but added there was "much more to do".

"Caseloads for social workers are continuing to come down. Bar a small number of people, the number of cases per individual is now fewer than 30.

"That's still not great but it's certainly better than where we were."

Ms Wagner said that the council had appointed a member of staff to liaise with workers who were absent on long-term sick leave from the department, which she said had been a positive development.

At one point before Ofsted's visit last year, more than one quarter of social work staff were absent indefinitely.

Ms Wagner said: "It's fair to say those people weren't always having good contact with their managers [while they were off], and we want to make sure that happens.

"We've asked those on long-term sick if they want to receive regular updates. It's about making sure they know we care about them and we value them.

"A number of people have resigned because they didn't want to come back. From their point of view, it's probably better to make a decision than not make a decision.